2 Germans Charged With Smuggling Snakes

Authorities Say The Men Are Part Of A Ring Broken Up Last Year That Was Bringing Rare Animals To Orlando.

June 20, 1997|By Tamara Lytle, Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — German authorities have arrested two alleged snake smugglers from a ring first broken up in Orlando last August, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.

The German men were arrested by authorities in Germany on Wednesday. One of them, alleged ringleader Frank H. Lehmeyer, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Orlando last year.

The case first came to light in Orlando when a curious customs inspector was checking the luggage of Simon David Harris of South Africa. After sticking his hand in the luggage, the inspector felt something move.

The reptiles were taken from Madagascar, an island nation near the southern tip of Africa. Importing them without a permit is illegal because they are protected under international agreements on endangered species.

Bill Brooks, spokesman for the Justice Department, said the conspirators intended to sell the snakes and tortoises to collectors of rare reptiles. At the time of the arrest, the National Reptile Breeders Expo was being held in Orlando.

Justice Department officials said the ring had smuggled $250,000 worth of rare and endangered tortoises and snakes from Madagascar to Germany and then on to the United States and Canada.

Lehmeyer of Speyer, Germany, was indicted last year in Orlando, along with Harris, Kloe, Canadian Enrico ''Rick'' Truant and two other Germans, Roland Werner and Olaf Strohmann. Truant is jailed in Canada, awaiting an extradition hearing. Strohmann and Werner have not been arrested.

Brooks said he is not sure whether Lehmeyer will be extradited to Orlando to face charges. Germany filed separate charges against him and one other German man, whose name was not released because he has not been charged in U.S. courts. Brooks said U.S. officials turned over information from an undercover operation to the Germans to help the investigation there.

Brooks said that removing the rare animals from Madagascar interferes with the food chain there. ''They're essential to maintaining biodiversity,'' Brooks said.